Announcements

Fishing Minnesota has added a new menu item (see above) called Fishing Report Clubs. It's a way to keep the really good fishing reports coming and being shared only with those who also provide detailed fishing reports.
We will only approve new members who request to join if they have already posted a recent fishing report in the area forum, associated with the Fishing Report Club area you want to join.
Initially we are going to limit the number of regular memberships, in the Fishing Report Clubs, to the top 20 members in each Club, to those with the best frequency and quality fishing reports provided in the club and less so in the regular fishing report forum open to all members. The higher quality fishing report reserved for the club of course.
If you want see detailed fishing reports/tips around your area and will share your detailed fishing report as soon as you join, then Join Now!
Some of the clubs are starting to fill fast. Use the Fishing Reports Club link in the Menu above (after you've posted a fishing report in the regular area forum) and request to Join.

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bmc 5

bmc 5

I bought a Bushnell, will have to dig it out and get you the particulars. The only reason I bought it was because we did an archery spot and stalk hunt 2 years ago in western N.Dakota. For many years, when treestand hunting, I would just pace off 20 yds from the base of my tree and tie a piece of orange surveyors tape at the 20 yd mark. Granted, I was on private property so I didn't have to worry too much about stand thiefs finding my stand by the ribbon. If you go the ribbon route, just make sure you pick it up at the end of season as it takes years for that stuff to deteriorate.

Brian

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Powerstroke 21

Powerstroke 21

I finally bought the Bushnell Scout a couple weeks ago. I have 1 bad eye and so my depth perception is terrible. Now that I know how far 40 yds really is I can only imagine the number of shots I've passed on in the past cause I thought they were too far with birds and deer.

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MN Mike 2

MN Mike 2

I've owned a Leica LRF 800 for about 4 years. Didn't really look at other brands when I bought this one, buddy of mine owned one and he has really been happy with his so I bought the same.

I was looking at other brands last fall for someone interested in a range finder, I was happy I owned the one I have.

I like the redish display on the Leica's readout better than the black displays in others, much easier to read in lower light conditions or dark backgrounds.

Good clear 10x optic.

One thing to keep in mind, just because a range finder says it's an 400, 600, 800 or better yard range finder doesn't mean it's going to read all targets out to that range, they might only pick deer up to 150 to 300 yards depending on the quality of the unit. There is a pretty good difference in some of the units out there when it comes to reading certain sized targets at certain yardages.

Good luck, you'll enjoy having a range finder with when you go hunting.

Mike

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harvey lee 13

harvey lee 13

I bought a Bushnell scout 2 years ago for bow hunting.All I use it for is marking distances to the trails when I am up in the stand.I dont have to walk to different spots to check distance from my tree and leave scent all over the place.I have also used it for rifle hunting when I hunt a open meadow to check the distance to a certain spot or deer.They work pretty good.

I didnt purchase a real spendy one as I figured a less expensive one would work fine for my needs and it sure did.I dont know for what I use it for if it is that big a deal but it is nice to have.The more expensive ones are probably better but I personally figured I did not need one that good and spendy.

I would say that if you have every thing you need then it would be nice to have one.Its kind of like having a camera for fishing,they are nice but do you really need one?

I cannot say that I harvest more deer or make better kills because of it.For me no big deal but someone else might love it.You have to make that choice.

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NELS-BELLS 38

NELS-BELLS 38

I'm surprised there is no mention of Nikon. I purchased a lower end Nikon unit (440?) new on ebay last year and love it. Very good quality and comparable in price to the Bushnell. I use it for bowhunting and also for golfing.

Nels

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bottomdweller 0

bottomdweller 0

I second the nikon. I also have the laser 440, very pleased with it. Its fun when your in the tree guessing how far it is to an object and you can actually find out if your judgement is on or sometimes way off. Also agree with harvey, its nice not getting your scent all over the place pacing here and there for yardage. I am ok at judging in the woods, but in the open fields I have a hard time so the rangefinder really helps in that case. gl

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TomBow 0

TomBow 0

I've got the Bushnell, too. Works for me. One thing to remember, try to range things that are at the same level as your treestand so you get an accurate horizontal measurement of the distance. If you range things at an angle, like from your stand height to the ground, you get a straight line measurement which will be longer than the actual horizontal distance. When shooting from a treestand, the horizontal distance is what you want to shoot for for an accurate shot. Best of Luck.

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Gissert 17

Gissert 17

My Nikon is VERY accurate. IIRC, the specs are 1/2 yard accuracy. It will measure down to the half yard on the shorter ranges. From about 12 yards or so out to about 60, it was dead on the money, all the time.

I have not used mine from a tree stand much at all, but have sighted down some pretty steep hills. It measures the distance from the finder to the object, so that would jive with the distance your arrow or bullet would travel.

When I was shopping them in the store (Cabelas), the sales guy asked my price range, and the selected three units and placed them on the counter. He then asked which one looked clearest to me. The Nikon was notably clearer, and that was what he said was his personal choice in that price range.

I used it in the field late last summer while scouting for elk in Minnesota. Used it a ton during the hunt, and had the chance to put the finder on a lot of deer. Every measurement seemed to be spot on. Once you get out to about 300 yards or so, somemtimes it would not lock on, depending on the reflectivity/size of the target. Most deer size critters would be solid to 300 yards, however. Things like trees, big rocks, or road signs would lock on to 400 or a tad better.

When I first started using it, I would also step off the distance to what I was measuring. Eventually, I gained great confidance in what it was telling me.

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Boomer 0

Boomer 0

This is a new rangefinder that goes for around $300 and the cool thing is that it gives you the the yardage reading with the incline calculated. If you are in a stand the actual yardage is less than the distance you would walk off from the base of your tree. I don't own one yet, but I'm thinking about getting one:

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Scoot 13

Scoot 13

I'm with Boomer on this one. I've got an older Bushnell and it's fine, but the new Leupold RX models look good. I would go with the III rather than the II because it's fully water proof. With some of the steep angled shots I've had out west, the "true shooting distance" reading would really be nice. I've heard some people have had some problems with them, but apparently Leupold got the problems ironed out. I think I'll own one by mid Sep.

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Scoot 13

Scoot 13

I would never recommend anyone stay away from Leupold- excellent optics. The RX models are new and they're had to work out a few bugs. Like I said, I'll likely own one soon, so I'm not overly concerned about it. The "actual shooting distance" measurement is one sweet feature for anyone hunting in rugged terrain or from a tree stand.

The standard recommendation for optics is buy the best ones you can afford. If you're going to be using it pretty sparingly, the Nikon would probably be just fine. If you're going to use it an aweful lot, I'd go higher end. However, keep in mind this isn't like a spotting scope or binocs- you won't have your eyes up to it for hours in a day. It'll be more like seconds. So, a good product that doesn't cost anything like a Zeiss or Swarovski will probably do you just fine. Leupold would be a tweaner (but still pretty spendy in my book) and Nikon would be cheaper.

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Scoot 13

Scoot 13

There's a huge literature on this available on the internet. It's surprisingly in depth and somewhat complicated. Basically, shooting either uphill or downhill will require you to shoot low. As you consider steeper angled shots and longer shots, the amount you have to adjust increases. Also, the difference is slightly larger for uphill shots than downhill shots (particularly at longer distances).

In a nutshell though, if you're shooting a fairly fast bow, not shooting extreme angles, and not taking really long shots, you can just aim a little bit low (couple inches) and you'll be fine from a tree stand using exact yardages.

I don't care to get in a big discussion about this here, though. Some people simply don't get the physics of it and refuse to accept the fact that you can't shoot actual horizontal distances given vertical distances between shooter and target (I've heard "40 yards is 40 yards no matter what" a few dozen times and unfortunately the people who say this simply don't get it-- BTW 40 yards is 40 yards, but with elevation differences, you can't aim as if it is--- dang it, I said I didn't want to get into this!!! ).

Anyway, do a little reading about it online and you'll likely get it pretty quickly. And yeah, for hunting around here in particular, you likely don't need one that accounts for elevation differences and is cheaper too.

Good luck!!!

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backlash 1 0

backlash 1 0

All depends how high you are. If you had trig in school, the distance from the base of the tree to the target X 1.414 would be your shooting distance if you were shooting down on a 45 deg angle. If shooting down at a 22 1/2 deg angle you would multiply by .707

Now, how to find what angle your shooting at, is beyond me, good luck

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Scoot 13

Scoot 13

It's actually not that simple either. You can't just consider the angle, because up vs. down shots of equal angle (and distances) aren't identicle in terms of how far off you'll be. The physics are fairly complicated, but the take home point isn't- aim a little low on steep angled shots, particularly longer ones.

Regarding the original topic- if you're going to take longer shots and at steep angles, you may want to seriously consider on of the RX models from Leupold. If not, I'd suggest you save yourself some money and get a less expensive model.

Made it out this weekend again with a bunch of friends on Saturday morning. Ice conditions at shore were great condition, ice driving around was just fine especially since I was only in 2wd. Fished a deep hole from 6:30 till 2 pm around Dent. Fish were active and everyone was able to land a few fish. Fish ranged from 12-16" with average being in that 14-15" range. Tons of people out there. Coming off the ice the access was no longer in great condition but was still very easy to get off the water.
Fished over by perham in the afternoon for crappies hit a deep hole that usually holds good populations. Graphed a ton but only 3-6" crappies. Fished till graphs died, guess LX7's with a 9 amp hour rating wont run 12+ hours lol. Access on that lake was getting very sketchy to say the least. Everyone kept driving on good ice so the trails coming off the lake were sporadic at best. Lots of snow on the lake and lots of slush and flooded spots on the lake. We were throwing water with 4wd in the pickup locked in.
Fished Sunday morning again, buddy I took is worse than most 5 year olds so it was an interesting morning. Got one around 7:15 right away. Was trying to set his rod up and graph and hooked one in the process he gave it too much slack and lost it. 5 minutes later he's fighting one and I can hear drag flying off so I thought I went too light of gear for him, he landed an 18.5" tuilibee! Biggest one of the weekend and ended up being his only fish. We fished the rest of the morning and ended up with about a dozen of them. Range was from 5" to 18.5" average being about 14" again. Access coming off was same condition but you drive through a "Beach" on shore and the beach is getting really dug out and soft.
Unless we get tons of cold weather soon I might be done for driving on any access that gets hit by sunlight. Sun has tons of power and I got a nasty sunburn on Saturday while hole hoping!

Made it out this weekend again with a bunch of friends on Saturday morning. Ice conditions at shore were great condition, ice driving around was just fine especially since I was only in 2wd. Fished a deep hole from 6:30 till 2 pm around Dent. Fish were active and everyone was able to land a few fish. Fish ranged from 12-16" with average being in that 14-15" range. Tons of people out there. Coming off the ice the access was no longer in great condition but was still very easy to get off the water.
Fished over by perham in the afternoon for crappies hit a deep hole that usually holds good populations. Graphed a ton but only 3-6" crappies. Fished till graphs died, guess LX7's with a 9 amp hour rating wont run 12+ hours lol. Access on that lake was getting very sketchy to say the least. Everyone kept driving on good ice so the trails coming off the lake were sporadic at best. Lots of snow on the lake and lots of slush and flooded spots on the lake. We were throwing water with 4wd in the pickup locked in.
Fished Sunday morning again, buddy I took is worse than most 5 year olds so it was an interesting morning. Got one around 7:15 right away. Was trying to set his rod up and graph and hooked one in the process he gave it too much slack and lost it. 5 minutes later he's fighting one and I can hear drag flying off so I thought I went too light of gear for him, he landed an 18.5" tuilibee! Biggest one of the weekend and ended up being his only fish. We fished the rest of the morning and ended up with about a dozen of them. Range was from 5" to 18.5" average being about 14" again. Access coming off was same condition but you drive through a "Beach" on shore and the beach is getting really dug out and soft.
Unless we get tons of cold weather soon I might be done for driving on any access that gets hit by sunlight. Sun has tons of power and I got a nasty sunburn on Saturday while hole hoping!

Wow just figured it out 105 day and counting that I have gone on to the lake. There may of been a day or two that I did not go on the lake but I guess I do not remember when that was. Its been another fun grind if that can be such a thing.
My blogging has not been as much as I would like. After a couple days you can not remember all the little things that happen. Such as as all the fishermen's names that I meet along the way. How many fish were caught and released, who did what, why they drove there, what mother nature threw at us.
I would say that not as many fishermen drove into the pressure ridges or snow berms this year.
There were again more wheel houses this year then last year as they just keep pumping them things out. There were some lake politics that I do not get to talk about, about the same as every year. I hooked up with snowbear Josh as he has become a new friend, I tried to give him some pointers and helped him out where I could.
If I graded the fishing 1 to 10 I would give her a 8, we had 3 really slow weekends in our spots. It seems that they are always biting somewhere on this lake, its just getting to them places can some times be impossible.
If I graded Buddy Hillmens road/highway it gets a 10, but I biased on that as I help with that. Our crappie get together has gotten smaller which is fine as I get to spend more time with the guys and gals. My working vacation started the day after walleye closed. I'm defiantly burned out with cooking the 3 course meals in old Minnesota, all though the cooking space is about the same size as our kitchen just no running water.
I would say we have to be around 150 to 200 elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies since walleye closed. Which is pretty good considering we can not get to where we want to be this year. I've really had to stay on the move to get the houses on new spots to improve the chance of catching such a elusive fish, but I always wonder if I should of stayed where I was.
When Wayne came up this weekend he drove into the maze of trails I have made in the last 3 weeks and said "your right you really do ruin areas" man did we have a laugh about that. They say Laughter makes you younger and again I may of gained a year or two.
Having Jonny boy working with me was a treat, as any time you can spend quality time with your kids is a bonus in life. Auguring holes with all most 3 feet of ice has become quite the chore , he makes it look easy, as after 3 holes I'm spent, I'm not sure how I ever have been able to knock out 40 holes on a Thursday or Friday. I guess I have to chalk it up to age.
He is also a fishing machine compared to me. He had spent every night out there since walleye closed. As our good friend Ole has said in the past. "he is a trophy hunter" you can not catch them if your not out there. Every one of these elusive crappies in my book are trophies'
Yesterday I started moving the fleet home after saying good bye to the guys. I have 3 of the 6 houses staged close to shore. Were going to keep montana and California out there for a couple more days I think, It all depends on mother nature, and how cutting the trail to Hillmens road goes today with the red baron. The houses can be out there after the 19th as long as there occupied and Jonny boy has no problem staying out there a few more nights.
Now for the fishing report, Ryan and his son Ripply arrived Thursday and spent two nights in florida. They were rewarded with 3 elusive yet still catchable upper red lake crappies. I also had 5 in the cooler so we sent him home with 5 total enough to have a great meal. The hammer and I ate the other 3 out there last night.
Wayne made it up for old Minnesota, I managed to snag one Saturday eve so he also got to have fresh crappie dinner when he got home last night.
jeoff, Jeromy, Larry and Kevin were in north Dakota and montana. North dakota got 5 the first night and Saturday morning, montana got 2 I think, then Saturday night it was the opposite. They figured they caught at least 20 counting the fish caught hole hopping during the day. The crew of 4 only kept 8 or 9.
Jonny boy and I also moved California and Florida Friday , Jonny boy picked a good spot for California and has caught more then a few, yesterday Dick and his wife came for the evening and had 2 last I heard, Dick said both are going on the wall.
Marty and Tony came down from low Saturday and fished in florida they left before dark so no fish for them.
Sounds like Darrin is going to come up tomorrow for a day or 2. Jeoff said he may come back as he has a hard time putting the ice fishing gear away, kinda like me putting the golf clubs or the fish houses away. I took the hammer fishing last night for her birthday but no elusive crappie for her all though I think she may of lost one or two, as well as me.
Hillmens highway is still in good shape, with the lake completely snow covered at this time. we have not lost much if any ice other then the landing which is not that big of a deal as its so shallow .